Meet the motor racing sensation putting Wales back on the racing map
History has shown the world how sports can be synonymous with countries that find success in them. The Americans are famous for their Basketball success, Kenya is inseparable from long-distance running due to its success and the British have always been a main stake in the world of motorsport.
What’s often left out of that equation is the balance between the four British nations in motorsport with English drivers being the biggest names in British motorsport. That could be changing however with more drivers such as Elfyn Evans of Wales being a top driver in the World Rally championship.
Wales might be making inroads into the circuit racing scene with arguably its hottest prospect in recent history. Enter Matthew Owain Rees, a nineteen-year-old racing driver born in Cardiff who has already tasted championship glory in British racing series’.
I sat down with Matthew to truly learn who he is, from his lights-out career beginnings to his chequered flag-end goals and every twist and turn in between.
We started as normal taking Matthew’s career all the way back to the beginning aged just three years old.
“So originally I got into Motorsport [through] karting down Llandow circuit so just near Cowbridge. Three years old my dad gave me a go-kart and just decided off you go have a see what it's like for a few years.”
“[I was] just bashing about on an airfield really, and then when I was old enough to get on track we evolved through the series. We went through bambino karting through the cadets into the world and European karting championships and then into cars from there.”
For any young racer to pursue a career in motorsport it comes at a big risk to their main life commitments such as school but also their parent’s livelihoods.
“My parents have always been about the balance because my mum's a teacher. She has to enforce this, the student aspect of it which is great but always balanced, always making sure if you do one thing you got to do the other just as well which has been really good for me being as I now have an opportunity to go do both obviously.”
In December 2023 FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem said that motorsport is too expensive saying “It’s too expensive, it's only for the rich”. Some drivers have to cough up hundreds of thousands of pounds just to enter motorsport at the entry level something Matthew has felt first hand.
“We've obviously had [funding issues]. Everyone's going to have issues with funding but me as a person I've been really fortunate to have extremely good principals and also been able to sign deals with people to actually get the difference that we didn't have, which has enabled me to keep going.”
“The one thing I would do is originally bring the karting price down because the karting price even in itself is I think a grand [£1000] to do a proper season in World karting which discourages everyone because you can't even do the basic aspect so how are you going to be able to afford the formula cars.”
Matthew was fortunate enough to progress through the karting ladder and make his way into the British Formula 4 series which is renowned for hosting some of the best young talent with the likes of current McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris being crowned champion in 2015.
“It's one of my proudest, not my most I'd say the year I've just had has been really good for me. It was a hard year in the end because at the time I'd left karting because my mum wasn't incredibly well so we left there and just took a year out just to test which was hard for me because as a racer you want to race you want to always be there not just sit on the sidelines.”
“Coming into it we did the first test day, we were like two seconds off the long pace but over time we managed to evolve and get quicker and quicker until the first race we came in I think we got pole by two [seconds]. I got lucky because we had a test in the wet at the time just the week before so we were quick.”
“Through the year it was quite difficult to keep consistency I mean we had I think four wins some people had like six which was hard but we were always like P2, P3 whereas other people I think one of my teammates had like p13 at the round which was difficult and that's why we ended up coming out on top because we were always there or thereabouts where some people can’t hold it and fold.”
Speaking on his time after that championship-winning British F4 season Matthew took an unusual career turn and it ended in more rookie silverware for him this time in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB.
“That's probably the other personal highlight of mine because I've spent my life in single-seaters. [The] cars obviously can only fit one seat and also single seat is it's you it's complete there's no weight whatever you do the car responds really well.”
“Whereas with a Porsche there I think two times the power and I want to I don't know the weight personally but at least two times the weight which is the hard bit and obviously driving style changes completely. So being able to adapt fully despite not having a lot of test days was really a good achievement for me managing to get poll our first time out and a win later in the season actually.”
Although Matthew is a young driver he still has his eyes set on the future and where his career may take him. Although his age is on the greener side of the sport he’s still realistic with his goals.
“I mean if I'm sitting here from a dreamer perspective F1 I mean why would you not say that? Realistically a nice factory drive with Porsche in the World Endurance series or Les Mans or an Indy car seat, Indy car is probably the best way it could go because those guys are so physical but the competition is so good so you can always go and improve yourself over there”.
Matthew is one of a few drivers to represent Wales in junior motorsport and instead of seeing this negatively it fuels him more than anything.
“It gives me a lot more pride because you think you look at England there are so many people here there and everywhere you go to one town there's like two drivers everywhere but you come to Cardiff I think there's one in literally half the country so it gives me a lot of pride to be able to represent my nation whereas other people don't get that opportunity.”
A lot of race drivers have set routines they must follow as part of their race-day superstitions and they are often weird yet intriguing but Matthew’s is more of the norm.
“There’s one I can't say on camera but we started this year, now normally what I'll end up doing is with Porsche we used to have a really nice Hospitality tent, you go in grab a coffee or two come out talk with your engineer about little things what you can improve get changed get into all your stuff get in the car memorise it a little bit, talk to your mechanic and go. Really it's not a huge amount of things just get yourself in the zone and get ready really.”
Finally, I wanted to know what it takes to make a racing driver switch off when they’re away from the track. How do they kick back and relax? Well, more racing of course.
“I enjoy a bit of golf I mean you can't not really it's quite therapeutic at times but yeah honestly I just enjoy sitting back relaxing sometimes and then going upstairs and sitting on my simulator for like five hours it's a bit difficult because that's also a way I relax just calming down and racing people online.”